About Watcher

Introduction

Watcher helps you manage your rotation by consolidating and condensing information onto a simple to read display. It allows you to focus on things that are more important like boss mechanics, your situational awareness, or listening to your raid leader; instead of being bogged down in the act of performing your rotation.

With deep and powerful configuration options, Watcher allows you to see exactly the information about your rotation that you want to see. However, it comes with a wide variety of defaults for many classes and specs to get you started. Properly configured and customized, Watcher is a mighty tool for both new players just learning their classes as well as players that have been raiding since classic.

A large number of visibility options to control exactly when Watcher shows up

And more!

Description

Through the use of a priority system as well as powerful filters for spells and abilities, Watcher displays your rotation in the familiar context of a timeline, with higher priority spells stacked on top of lower priority ones and upcoming abilities placed on the timeline according to when they will become useful. Abilities on the timeline are waiting for a wide variety of things: coming off of cooldown, waiting for resources, monitoring a DoT, etc.

Attacks ready to be performed are displayed using a stack with the most prioritised attack shown on top.

Ability keybinds can be optionally displayed.

Configuration

Spells can be configured to be cast based on a wide variety of filters whether that be the presence (or lack there of) of an aura on you or your target, your target's health percent, your mana/resource percent, whether a spell can be stolen or interrupted, whether you have a particular talent or glyph, among other options.

Michael P. Starkweather:
- Some changes to message and TOC for the RC2
- Change anticipation support in the secondary resource filter to only count anticipation if you have more than 5 combo points.
Marci @ Hellscream:
- Fixed Feral defaults to properly not cap CP and not Thrash if you have SotF.
- Added Anticipation support to Combat Rogue Defaults.
Michael P. Starkweather:
- Fix for not using the correct spellId for the power filter change.
- Fix accidental bug with not specifying unit
- Remove check if a channel has a cooldown in the usability filter.
- Change to remove the cost of the currently casting spell from the player's mana pool in the power filter
Marci @ Hellscream:
- Various changes to Hunter defaults.
- Made changes to ProtPaladin defaults to account for Talented buffs and procs.
- Berserker Rage added to ProtWar defaults.
- Rererere-fixed Jab. This should work for everyone and be simpler.
- Added Force of Nature to Balance defaults.
- Insanity issues in Priest Defaults, should fix.
- Fixed Jab. Again. Apparently there is a different SpellID depending on MH weapon. 6 SpellIDs. 6 Filters per SpellID. 36 separate filters for Jab. 'Cause "Reasons". Thanks Blizz.
- Fix for Shadow Word: Insanity.
- Fixed SpellID issue with Jab. Different SpellID based on 2h vs DW. Wierd.
- Fixes to Frost priorities and filters.
- Added Brewmaster defaults.
- Added Resonating Power, Bloodbath, Sudden Death.
- Initial pass at Shadow Defaults.
- Adjusted Prot defaults, to account for Bastion of Glory, and not capping Holy Power, and use Shield of the Righteous.
- Thrash Fix.
- Balance defaults in.
- Small changes to ProtWar defaults. Probably more will be needed.
Michael P. Starkweather:
- Spell texture should now always change if the spell texture changes.
- Should now properly never show things that are usable on the GCD.
Marci @ Hellscream:
- Added Prot Defaults.
- Fix to Demonic Fury and Burning Embers reflected in the Defaults.
Michael P. Starkweather:
- Demonic fury/burning embers is now fixed.
Marci @ Hellscream:
- Fixed issues with various Assassination defaults.
Michael P. Starkweather:
- Switch to using the frequent power updates for both power and secondary resource
- Change to the max slider in secondary resources to allow for up to 1000. A soft max will still be set by the type of secondary resource.
Marci @ Hellscream:
- Changes to Rend handling, Execute SpellID for Arms.
- Changes to bugged Warlock defaults.
- New Paladin defaults, including fixes to Exorcism and reaction to Divine Purpose procs.
Michael P. Starkweather:
- Change the "Towards Solar" and "Towards Lunar" so that you are able to actually read them.
- Changes to Mage, Warlock, and Warrior defaults -- thanks Marci-Hellscream.
- Fix for Ticket #75 - Slam broken in Defaults.
- Always choose the spellId that we know to add
- Switch to LibSpellbook for adding spells by name, should be a little bit more reliable at adding the correct spell.
- Now can edit filter set names with a popup, taking care of ticket #51
- Tiny change to hunter defaults and will not ask to replace. Aimed Shot - Thrill of the Hunt was configured slightly wrong.
- Secondary Resource filter revamp.
- Slider is used in Secondary Resource tab instead of entry box, with min and max set by the type of resource.
- Eclipse: can now specify what direction that the Eclipse is growing
- Combo Points: can now specify if you want to take Anticipation into account if you are a rogue
- New API Version.
- Removes spellCondition.name because it isn't needed
- Adds a cooldown table to each priorityList, this will be for cooldowns and will have a secondary display. Not implemented yet.
- Adds an optionalBehavior variable to secondaryResource filters. Not implemented yet.
- Reverse the spellName and dropdownLabel in spell dropdowns. This change is based on how the defaults are playing out.
- Fixes for defaults for Warrior (ticket #71), Warlock (ticket #58), and Death Knight (ticket #59).
- Made the secondary resource use the UNIT_POWER event instead of the UNIT_POWER_FREQUENT event.
- Embedded AceSerializer. We'll use it later for export/import.
- Fixed issue with Timer not being canceled when the frame is suddenly hiden.
- Removed the animation calls that I was using to test.
- No OnUpdate! Frame will now determine it needs to be animating and won't update if it doesn't have to.
- Also, finally fixed issue with stacking at load. Stupid undocumented Blizzard API bugs
- Fix for Warlock Soul Shards and Burning Embers not returning a decimal for the actual amount of those resources. Blizzard API is a little weird with these two.
- Fix for desaturate sometimes not being applied when under/over the correct amount.

Comments

1: is this your first time using the addon, or have you had the addon for a long period of time? If you've had the addon for a while (like before MoP came out), you may need to delete the saved variables - there were some glitches involved with old versions that saved data differently.

Thanks for the quick reply nothingsknower. Yes I been using Watcher for a while. What I will do is first make a copy of the SV and then delete it, try Watcher and see how it goes. If it repeats, I'll send you the SV. Will let you know how it goes.

Ya, the addon's not very well designed to modify how it handles priorities based on the effects of spells (i.e. it cant't tell that !Fire causes Aimed Shot to be free). By default, the addon sets spells that you can't afford to cast at lower priorities even if it'soff cooldown and ready to use... A new option to ignore power when displaying the icon might be nice to add.

Aimed Shot is a bit funny: when Fire! is up, the addon still doesn't display the shot if Focus is lower than 50, even though the Aimed Shot is free at that point. Not sure if that's easily fixable, and it's less of a concern since the proc is visible.

I'll take a look, might not be able to get to it until tomorrow. I've noticed a flaw where I've sometimes been unable to add a new aura to track as well which I'll need to fix.... We've been working around it by adding all the spells in manually in the back end with default setups.

after looking at noxxic, it might be that you'd want to change that up a bit, especially with Serpent Sting being refreshed by Cobra Shot.The previous settup basically assumes you'd rather risk having to re-apply Serpent's Sting, rather than reach 100 focus (and those lose out on whatever could have been cast with the focus over 100.

But let's assume that's not the case.... that we'd rather NOT risk having to re-apply Serpent's Sting, and that we'd rather refresh it with Cobra Shot even if it puts us over 100 focus. The question is what's a greater DPS loss, having to use a GCD to refresh Serpent's Sting + the loss of ticks of serpent's Sting in the process + the loss of focus used to re-apply serpent's sting, or the loss of focus over 100 that could have been used on arcane shot. A more complete setup might look like this:

1. Hunter's Mark (as an aura to track on enemy)

2. Serpent Sting (As an aura to track on an enemy, modified by checking "Aura Has No Expiration")

3. Cobra Shot for Serpent Sting (i.e. the Spell to use is Cobra Shot, the spell to track on enemy is serpent's sting)

4. Cobra Shot (With a requirement that focus be below 47 to display/use)

5. Explosive Shot (which doesn't need lock and load... according to noxxic.com at least, they say use on CD)

6. Kill Shot w/ health less than 20%

7. Black Arrow (as aura to track on enemy player)

8. Murder of Crows

9. Arcane Shot

This should display to cast Cobra Shot whenever Serpent Sting is low (regardless of if it will put you over 100 focus or not). Also, by checking "Aura Has No Expiration" on serpent's sting, this will cause the icon to vanish whenever you have serpent's sting on your target... which is good, because we have "Cobra Shot for Serpent Sting" set up to be displayed in its place. Without this, Serpent Sting would alwys show on top of Cobra Shot. If you allow serpent sting to fall off without refreshing it, the icon will re-appear telling you to cast serpent sting instead of cobra shot to re-apply it.

That setup should pretty well keep you in line with the Noxxic priority guide... if elitist jerks has different recommendations, then further modifications might be needed.

Ultimatly, there's more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to setting this up. Instead of going through all these hoops to track Focus, you can just do as Hallowman100 first suggested... watch as Murder of Crows nears CD, and start casting Cobra Shot if it's gray to get enough focus... that works too, and the difference is a matter of preference and what you're used to. You might also prefer to watch the icon for Serpent's Sting, instead of having the addon tell you to use Cobra Shot to refresh serpent's sting.... the addon can do both, it's a matter of preference.

First of all, I DON'T play a hunter, but if I were to try to set it up, here's how I'd go about it.

Wherever you put Black Arrow in priority, Cobra Shot should be just above it. Modify Cobra Shot so that it is only suggested to be cast when you have something like 45 or 50 focus or less. Below both Cobra Shot and Black Arrow should be Arcane Shot.

A Murder of Crows (and any other cooldowns/DoT's) should be placed above Arcane Shot in priority as well, unless it's an instant cast that's off of the GCD.

So your priority list would look like this:

1. Instant-casts that are off of the GCD/raid buffs/stuff you should just always use the moment's it's needed or available.

2. Cooldowns/Procs that are more important than even the upkeep of Black Arrow and other DoT's

3. Cobra Shot (With a requirement that it only show when you have under 47 focus)

4. Black Arrow

5. Cooldowns/Procs that are less important than Black Arrow, but more important than Long Cooldowns like A Murder of Crows

6. A Murder of Crows

7. Other procs/cooldownds less important than A murder of Crows but more important than Arcane Shot

8. Arcane Shot.

Murder of Crows might be an important cooldown to use, but my guess is it's low on the priority list because of the long cooldown.... whether you use it now, or you wait 2 seconds to use it so that you could squeeze in another tick of Black Arrow, the dps from Murder of Crows will likely still be the same. Having Cobra Shot so high on the priority list means that you'll always maintain your focus over the required focus (which I put at 47), which should be enough to cast Murder of Crows and Black Arrow as needed.

What you should see is Arcane Shot and Cobra Shot dance back and forth as you go above and beyond the Cobra Shot's minimum focus requirement. You only really need to pay attention to this as the high-focus requiring cooldowns/DoT's approach cast time... otherwise you can just go arcane shot crazy and cast Cobra Shot when you're low on focus.

If that works, awesome, otherwise if you think there's still issues that need to be addressed, please say so.

Arcane Shot (as i understand it) is most times a filler spell. As such, what i do with ALL my filler spells is set it as the very last priority. Even if the spell shows up, it shouldnt matter, because you will sell a higher priority spell on top of AS.

the resource stuff is always going to be more of an "intuitive" function. That means you will be responsible for pushing what ever you need to gain the resources you want, instead of having the addon tell you. the game as is has too many variables per encounter to configure this addon to those purposes.

the good news is, theres a number of ways that you can customise this addon in game to work exactly (or close to it) as your playstyle demands. much like your self fix for AS, you can also create a new AS with thrill of the hunt if you like. you can also set cobra shot to be the number 1 priority IF your focus dips below a certain amount. personally what i do (for a murder of crows situation) is when i see a CD coming down the bar that i know needs a resource, but its greyed out, thats when i start trying to build the resource by using whatever spell will do that for me.

also, looks like i missed putting thrill of the hunt into the hunter lua. that will be a part of the next patch.

in time, it is my hope to have the addon work 100% out of the box, and per spec, with possible modules, but that is a long way down the road.

One question. I'm new to the hunter class and I set up my rotation according to the one suggested at Elitist jerks, but I come to a situation very often where I am suggested to use Arcane Shots even if I, for example, don't have active Black Arrow DoT ticking and the spell is off cooldown. A Murder of Crows never even being suggested, it just drowns in priority list with its high focus cost. Would be nice to have an option to ignore resource requirement of spells so I know that I need to do a couple of cobra shots to gain focus, because I need to renew my Black Arror for example and I don't want to care about Arcane Shots in this interval even though I can shoot one or two.

I know that I should manage my focus myself, but I think it would be easier if it prioritised abilities regardess of focus requirement. It seems to me that I need to use Arcane shot only when I have all other attack abilities on cooldown. Currently it shows Arcane Shot to me just when I have enough focus for it.

I used to have CLCRet on my Ret Paladin and that addon ignored mana reqs by default. I know that focus is a little bit different because it is constantly spent and regained rapidly, but still.

One another thing that would be potentially cool is to have a special tick for abilities like Cobra Shot that regenerate the main resource so it would show it when I have no focus for the ability that I need to use.

Please feel free to correct me on my points as I'm not very experienced in endgame hunter play. I just wrote my general observations when I compared what addon suggests me and what I'm used to. And I actually saw DPS drop when I followed the addon suggestions mainly because of frequent lower cost spell cost suggestions like Arcane shot.

Ok, I guess I know how to solve Arcane Shot problem - I will just make it require at least 50 focus to be shown on the list. But now I'm having problems with configuring differen case for Arcane Shot with active Thrill of the Hunt. I configured it the same way Explosive Shot with Lock'n'Load is done but it still doesn't work. It never shows for me.

all hail to nothingsknower. i went to the wow forums looking for help on getting this addon back up and running. looks like one of the last updates we'll see in a while is now up, with all the class' taken care of. a lot of the spells already have their settings pre set up, so pretty much all one need do is set the priority list and rock n roll.

dump yer saved variables for this addon before starting up the new one, it should run smoothe as silk after that.